RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Craig Becker Defeated

they're running and they're on fire

People are policy and while much attention has been focused on the profusion of buffoons and poltroons Obama has installed at the cabinet and sub-cabinet level positions in his administration, the real work of radically changing the character of our government has been entrusted to anonymous apparatchiks.

Some of these have bubbled to the top and have resignd: green czar and self identified communist Van Jones, UN financial reform guru and part time identity thief Jide Zeitlin, performance czar and tax cheat Nancy Killefer. Safe schools czar and pedophile apologist Kevin Jennings remains on the job as do others.

Today, however, we may have won one small battle in the war to keep the adminstrative machinery of the nation out of the hands of people who are opposed to our system of goverment. Obama’s nomination to fill the a vacant seat on the National Labor Relations Board has fallen to a bipartisan fillibuster.

The NLRB was established by our last socialist president in 1934. Its function is to oversee union elections, by that I mean elections held in companies to determine union representation, and to adjudicate unfair labor practices. It all sounds innocuous. And it is if the board confines itself to being a neutral enforcer of federal labor laws and regulations. Enter Craig Becker, stage left.

Becker is associate general counsel of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the union that provides the left with goons, and a close associate of its president Andy Stern. Mr. Becker has held some fairly exotic positions on labor relations. Positions which, in a different administration even of the same party, should disqualify him from being considered for this post.

For example, Becker has written that ‘employers should be stripped of any legal cognizable interest in their employees’ election of representatives.’ This radical view would even extend to prohibiting employers from alerting the NLRB to illegal campaign conduct. In the same law review article quoted above, Becker wrote that ‘employers should have no right to raise questions concerning voter eligibility or campaign conduct.’ Taking such views one step further, Becker believes that employers shouldn’t even be heard when it comes to most NLRB cases, writing: ‘employers should have no right to be heard in either a representation case or an unfair labor practices case.’

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced Monday evening that he will support a Republican-led filibuster over President Barack Obama’s nominee to serve on the National Labor Relations Board.

The move is likely to infuriate labor groups who have fought hard for Craig Becker’s nomination to serve on the five-member NLRB – and will likely give Republicans enough support to sustain a filibuster Tuesday.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration,” Nelson said in a statement. “This is of great concern, considering that the board’s main responsibility is to resolve labor disputes with an even and impartial hand.”

We welcome Senator Nelson’s opposition to seating Becker on the NLRB. But my eye was drawn to the next paragraphs.

Nelson, a conservative Democrat up for reelection in 2012, has seen his approval ratings drop sharply since he lent his support for Obama’s health care bill in December and secured deals for Nebraska’s Medicaid payments.

His latest decision could help him tout his independent credentials back home, but will likely generate anger from the left, which says Becker is a well-qualified nominee who has been denigrated by his opponents.

http://www.skygod.com/quotes/greatsantini.html
In reading that I was reminded of the eulogy given by novelist Pat Conroy at the funeral of his father, USMC Colonel Donald Conroy who is best known as “The Great Santini”. (The eulogy itself is worth the read even if you aren’t familiar with Conroy or his novels.)

Let me do it in his voice: “We didn’t even have a map of Korea. Not zip. We just headed toward the sound of artillery firing along the Naktong River. They told us to keep the North Koreans on their side of the Naktong. Air power hadn’t been a factor until we got there that day. I radioed to Bill Lundin I was his wingman. ‘There they are. Let’s go get’em.’ So we did.”

I was interviewing Dad so I asked, “how do you know you got them?”

“Easy,” The Great Santini said. “They were running – it’s a good sign when you see the enemy running.”

“There was another good sign.”

“What was that, Dad?”

“They were on fire.”

This is a good sign for 2010. As Obama’s influence wanes under the multiple blows of self-dealing, incompetence, and left wing ideology he is finding few allies. Many of his party realize the radioactive nature of the administration to the American public and they are taking steps to distance themselves from him. In short, the enemy is running and he’s on fire.